Good Afternoon Saturday, December 20, 2014

Hello Everyone,

So only 5 more days until Christmas.  I’ll be glad when it’s over frankly, but I am enjoying the extra entertainment at work and I love listening to Christmas Carols on the radio.  Got a late start on Wylie today because I went out to the “Big Cypress Preserve” – 47 miles from my house out in the Everglades.  Here is the arrival picture:

Set up to enjoy the Swamp

I did leave work a little early on Friday to get going to the Swamp.  I’m glad I did because by the time I left my house, if I had any more delays it may have been dark by the time I got there.  Anyway, Bill and Cathy welcomed me with a fabulous dinner of Ribs, potatoes and cole slaw without any fattening dressing – just a vinaigrette and it was delicious.  The ribs were phenomenal and didn’t disappoint with messy deliciousness.  The BBQ sauce had NO SUGAR in it.  (Cathy send me this recipe please)!  I LOVE BBQ sauce, but it always has too much sugar and I’m trying to eliminate a lot of that, along with WHEAT and other “grains”.  It’s gonna be my “theme” for a while so get used to it.  I’m getting pretty determined about this.  I have a lot of education to catch up with, but I’m sure Bill and Cathy will lead me to the websites I need (need to get to “marksdailyapple.com” today).  (Right guys?…….right? …….  are you there??????).  We had a fantastic time out in the wilderness.  There were some mosquitoes and lots of gnats after dark – but not all that bad and I got used to them after a while.  After dinner, we went over to the the “fire pit” and Bill had started a “campfire”.  They invited their neighbors in the park to come, but only “Mike and DeeDee (the dog) took us up on it.  Mike was on his own with his little dog (reminded me of “Toto” in the Wizard of Oz).  Just recently divorced he said his wife got the condo in Marco and he just purchased the RV to pull behind his truck.  We found out he was a “tool and dye” guy from Detroit and he worked for a car company – I forget which one, but it wasn’t Ford – for a lot of years.  I was pretty amazed at how open our conversations were.  Bill and Cathy shared more about their wonderful life in Yellowstone.  It was just really peaceful and so natural.  Bill used his “laser pointer” (I should be getting mine soon) to point out the constellations.  It was a little cloudy last night, but there were still lots of stars to stare at (I kept thinking about that episode of “The Big Bang” theory when they went camping to watch the meteor shower and ate the pot brownies and missed the whole event – it was so funny).  We had lots of discussions about “Wheat Belly” and computers:  Apple vs Google Chrome, websites on Blogspot vs WordPress and on and on.  We’re all convinced “our way” is the best but are willing to accept different processes.  I must say – the stuff that Bill and Cathy can do on their Apple computers, gives me “pause”, but I use microsoft stuff at home and at work, the Apple learning curve is just a little off my radar right now – maybe later when I’m retired.  Oh yea, we talked about retirement and social security and medicare etc.  Cathy learns about this through Bill’s life (she is a number of years away from SS) but Bill is “receiving” a check each month now.  Same for Dick, Doug and Jon.  I’m the “baby” of the family (not counting Cathy) so I’ll be the last to do that in our family.  Still want to work a few more years.  I must say getting a paycheck every other Friday is pretty wonderful.  So anyway, we went to bed at a reasonable hour (9PM) so I slept on the couch and it was very comfortable.  Didn’t wake up until 6:30 – no cats to disturb me!  Too bad for them, now I’m not afraid to come out to where they are and mooch off of them.  Actually, if Doug and Dick arrange for a trip out to Yellowstone, I’ll probably piggy back on to their plans.  Jon even mentioned the possibility of a trip out west.  Sounds like another “Bass/Peebles” reunion in the future – like this one:

On Cape Cod

This is our family reunion on Cape Cod.  Me in the Red Cape Cod sweat shirt, Jonathan (Jon’s son in the Black Sweat shirt), then Jon.  Ale is the blond behind me and Carolyn (Cousin David’s (RIP) wife mostly hidden), David & Doug and then Dick behind them.  It was a great time.  We stayed at “Pilgrim’s Village” in the same cottages we stayed in as kids back in the 50’s and 60’s.  It hadn’t changed much!  This is the cabin Jon, Ale, Jonathan and I stayed in and also a picture of Jon enjoying that wonderful New England Lobster:

Eating Lobster

Back to Pilgrim’s Village

Jon, Jonathan and Ale stayed about 3 days.  When you rent a place on the Cape, you rent it for a minimum of one week, so after they left I had the whole place to myself.  It was a blast.  We really had a great trip and it was the last time we would spend time with David before he died.  Bill and Cathy didn’t make this trip so we’ll have to do this again and include them this time!

So yesterday, I misspoke and showed the wrong “Winston”.  Ben and Mary have at least 4 BIG DOGS and I inadvertently chose “Winston’s brother” from Mary’s FB page.  So here is the REAL Winston:

This is really Winston and Mary

Now I’m needing to “fire up” my Desktop to find the picture I want to add to the blog about our family reunion so while that is going on I’ll add the other picture from the “Swamp” I took:

Back from the swamp

I added this to FB too.  It is taken at the Ochopee Post Office.  When I got home, poor little Rose was so dirty, I gave her a bath.  She is BEAUTIFUL now.  I’m still debating in my head about trading her in.  Still I say, no….. she should run well past 100,000 miles (she is at 64K now) and then I don’t need to go through that hassle.  But IF I were to do a trade, I’m zeroing in on a Kia Soul.  I think it is a sweet looking little car (yes Bill, I’ll measure it so I know it will fit in the garage) and I think driving my “SOUL” is somewhat “Spiritual”.  So more shall be revealed about this.

But before I go I want to add one (I mean 2) more picture(s) for the day.  Lily (my boss) gave me a little present for Christmas and here it is:

Early Christmas Present

Thank you Lily!

ADORABLE.

Thanks for visiting and putting up with 1175 words!  WOW – time for a nap!